While the police suspect it to be a case of honour killing, the woman’s family alleged gangrape and murder by men from the Scheduled Caste Jatav community.

Police inspect the spot where the body of a 19-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree at Rajupur Milak village in Moradabad Thursday. ( Source: PTI )

Less than a week after two cousins were found hanging from a tree in Badaun, a similar case was reported from Thakurdwara in Moradabad district of UP on Thursday morning. A 19-year-old woman, belonging to the Yadav community, was found hanging from a tree in Rajupur Milak village.

While the police suspect it to be a case of honour killing, the woman’s family alleged gangrape and murder by men from the Scheduled Caste Jatav community. The police have arrested two persons, Sunjay Gautam and Nikki.

According to the police, the woman had returned to her house on Tuesday with her uncle and grandmother after attending her maternal grandmother’s funeral. Her parents, brother and two sisters had stayed back. On Thursday morning her brother, a CRPF clerk, returned home to find his sister missing. Her body was spotted hanging from a tree in a field by a local, who informed the police.

The police said that the woman was menstruating and had stains on her salwar, which made her family conclude that she had been raped. But the doctors who conducted the postmortem prima facie ruled out rape. “We have, however, sent vaginal swab for examination,” said a police officer. The postmortem also revealed that she was dragged, hanged from the tree and then beaten to death. There were scratch marks on her neck, the police said, adding that since the crime happened late at night in the field, no one heard her scream.

During investigation, her brother alleged that Sunjay and his friend Nikki used to stalk her. After he raised suspicion over the two men, the police arrested them and registered a case of murder.

“Sunjay and Nikki were stalking my sister and she had complained about them to me in the past. I had got a case registered against them at the police station, but later we reached a compromise. This is a Yadav village, no

one would dare to touch my sister. It is the Jatav boy who killed her.”

However, the police claimed that the victim was friendly with Sunjay and was often spotted with him by locals. “After we questioned villagers, it was revealed that she was friendly with him, and her brother opposed this friendship. This pointed the needle of suspicion towards her brother. We suspect it to be a case of honour killing,” said a police officer. The police are now probing the case on these lines and the victim’s brother will be questioned in this regard. The police officer added, “The tree she was found hanging from is barely 15 feet high. It is impossible for a person to commit suicide by hanging from a tree of that height.”

SSP Ashutosh Kumar said, “Based on the complaint of the victim’s brother, we registered a case of murder against two persons and arrested them. But we are now probing the honour killing angle.”

CBI registers case in Badaun gangrape-murder

New Delhi: Two weeks after the bodies of two teenage girls were found hanging from a tree at a village in Badaun, the CBI Thursday registered a case of gangrape and murder against five persons. “We have received a notification from the government and registered a case,” CBI Director Ranjit Sinha said.

The agency has named two police officers, Chhatrapal Yadav and Sarvesh Yadav, and three brothers Pappu, Awadhesh and Urvesh Yadav, all of whom have been accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy to commit gangrape and murder under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. A 20-member team headed by a DIG has now been constituted to probe the matter. The team will visit Badaun along with forensic experts on Friday, where they likely to examine and recreate the crime scene. ENS